Should you build a portfolio based on clients who pay you less or focus on charging what you're worth from the start?
Despite having experience with personal projects and understanding the process of doing a project, why do recruiters still prefer to see clients you have worked for and the work you've done for them, including tasks like administrative work and analyzing briefs outside/after your university?
Replies6
- Hi SandraIt’s because there’s no reason for them to change the conversation. It works for them, makes their job easy and perpetuates the constant flow of talent trying to prove their value.And that’s why it’s easy to subvert the process.Instead of trying to prove your value, demonstrate it to that business. What is your unique value proposition. What do you do that no one else does? Is it in your aesthetic, your design process etc?Clarify that and then apply it directly to the client you’re going to see. If it’s a process thing show them the deficiencies in their process and why you’re faster (see 10 days as a good example). If it’s how your aesthetic could make their brand stand out, show them.Ask questions like “what’s keeping them awake at night” about your field. Then seek to fit (only if it does) your value proposition into how you’d solve that.Too many people try to sell or show their value though work that has no inherent value to the client.Creating value is a powerful way to sell and, in the long run, provides better selling stories and greater, more value laden work.Stay Boom!S
- Great question @Sandra Fajuyigbe, I've just sent you a DM!
- I honestly don't understand why recruiters devalue work on such a surface level.Short answer: No don't make a porftolio to appease people who won't pay what your worth. A lot of extra time would go into doing that and won't be fruitful in the end. If you're offering beautiful wedding cakes and the client wants little cakes with a Target sticker, will capitulating to the Target client assess your worth?
- Know your worth, maintain your worth.You talk about recruiters favouring client-based work, those aren't good recruiters. Which isn't a surprise in the design industry as most recruiters outside main hubs are bad recruiters. People who don't understand the power of the portfolio, nor understand what designers - especially junior designers - actually do. Hence the fact that junior design roles are no longer junior design roles.Personal projects not only demonstrate your work at its best - free of client interference - but also your process at its most pure. Cheap client-based work will show your work at its worst and an innavigable process that just isn't sustainable on a personal level.If recruiters are more interested in who you're working with rather than the work itself, don't be afraid to question why. Shift their focus to the actual work and what *you* do with it. You don't have to tell them they're bad at what they do, but gently show them what's important in your portfolio.And when it comes to clients, know your worth and maintain it. Don't settle for less than you're worth.
- I seen this: Prspective recruiters want names, only a few - very skilled - recruiters can see beyond that. Most of them aren't trained designers, so they only have a small understanding what it takes. And I don't blame them. They also need to know if you can work to a brief. A real one, one with silly requests, 2 weeks back and forth over the colour of the pinkie nail of the model and possibly having to draft the project over and not loose your will to live. Also your ability to work with a team. As good your self initiated work is, it will never show that. But self initiated is good to show two things:Your process, and your ability to tackle tasks, which in an agency or an in-house creative dept, would be given to someone else.So by all means show your self initiated projects, but limit them to your very best, and those where you went above and beyond. Ask for feedback from people in the industry, to nail them down to a couple, one of which might be a very detailled case study.If you have no real client projects, then pro-bono work for charities can be a solution. They will be real briefs, real clients, and nobody had to know if they were pro-bono or paid for. (unless you are asked, always be honest)I would be extremely wary of pro-bono or low paid work for start-ups. In my experience they are the worst clients.You can also consider an intership in an agency, and try to negociate taking on (or be part of) bigger projects, be part of bigger teams and make sure you can witness all the sides of a business, not just the view from behind the screen.If you are prepared to work for less or pro-bono, something has to give:Obviously: be credited everywhere your work goes, have them recommend your work somehow (linkedIn, Google review, or anything else you can quote), give you the right to promote your work with photos, press releases, social media posts etc. And recommendations, if possible (you need that word of mouth, and obviously for the full priceIf your work is creative input, you don't really have to ask to be able to share (except out of courtesy, an underrated behaviour :) ), but if you're like me (a retoucher) with a limited creative input then it's another story (I have worked with big names, I mean BIIIIG) but I am unable to show the work to anybody as it's covered by NDA. Fortunately, I have been paid accordingly.
- Hi Sandra,It's not that obvious till you didn't work with various clients but basically the difference between personal work and client work is like the difference between s*x and p*rn. Managing client exceptations, educating them about creative principles and being able to solve real life problems could not compare for the freedom a personal / uni work. Generally I would say 3 years of studying / personal projects equal for one year of professional client work.Also, recruiters quite often don't have understanding and eye for seeing talent and design thinking so tey try to cover they insecurity about the subject with having unrealistic exceptations.
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